A perennially perplexing
problem in critical theory is thinking (and practicing)
the interconnections between culture and economics. Some
of the most intriguing models for overcoming this vexing
divide base themselves on the concepts of exchange and circulation
– of objects, money, women, signs and images–in
circuits of commodities on the one hand and gifts on the
other. In addition to allowing one to explore the reciprocal
production of culture and political economy, these models
also reveal the dialectical transformation between exchangers
and exchanged where objects take on the attributes of people
and spirits while people become objects. This course will
study the intertwining genealogies of theories of commodity
exchange going back to Karl Marx and theories of gift exchange
going back to Marcel Mauss. We will also study explosive
clashes between the two systems in colonized cultures capitalism
is imposed on indigenous economies of gift and commodity
exchange. Through the double genealogy mentioned above,
the course will explore two theoretical approaches to exchange:
semiotic approaches with their readings of Marx and Freud;
and postcolonial approaches where exchange multiplies and
branches into circulation through different cultures and
power relations. Students will be encouraged to put these
theories in dialogue with a specific instance of cultural/economic
circulation of their own choosing. For the class in general
the case study for this dialogue will be fashion, as it
epitomizes the interconnection between commodity fetish
and sexual fetish, as well as the seemingly unbridgeable
divide in late capitalism between the cultural pleasures
of consumption and the exploitations of production. Term
papers required.
